International Flavors Offers Senior Notes at a Discount

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.IFF recently priced an offering of €500 million of Senior Notes. Subject to customary closing conditions, this underwritten public offering is anticipated to close on May 18, 2017.

Over the last one month, the company’s shares have lost 0.33%, underperforming the gain of 1.18% recorded by the Zacks categorized Chemicals Specialty industry.

As disclosed, the company offered 4.375% Senior Notes due 2047 at a discounted price of 99.650% of principal amount, plus accrued interest, if any. Interest will be paid semi-annually on Jun 1 and Dec 1, starting from Dec 1, 2017.

In addition, International Flavors & Fragrances highlighted the fact that these notes are registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Net proceeds from the issuance, estimated to total €493.875 million, will be used to repay the company’s borrowings under the revolving credit facility, $250 million of 6.25% Series A Senior Notes due Sep 27, 2017, amounts outstanding under commercial paper program and for general corporate purposes. Rating of the issuance is ‘Baa1 (stable)’ by Moody's Investors Service and ‘BBB+ (stable)’ by Standard & Poor’s.

Though such debt issuances satisfy general corporate purposes, we believe it makes International Flavors & Fragrances more levered. Exiting first-quarter 2017, the company had long-term debt of approximately $1,186.4 million. If unchecked, higher debt levels will increase the company’s financial obligations and subsequently hurt its profitability.

KMG Chemicals witnessed upward earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2018, over the past 60 days. The company pulled an average positive earnings surprise of 10.63% for the trailing four quarters.

Kraton Corporation’s bottom-line estimates for 2017 and 2018 improved over the last 60 days. In the last quarter, the company reported better-than-expected results, with a positive earnings surprise of 34.78%.

Ferro Corporation delivered a positive average earnings surprise of 19.63% for the last four quarters. Its earnings estimates for 2017 and 2018 were revised upward over the past 60 days.

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